opportunity

There is no security on this earth.
Only opportunity.

Douglas MacArthur
   

Security isn't what the wise person looks for; it's opportunity.  And once we begin looking for that, we find it on every side.  You can measure opportunity with the same yardstick that measures the risk involved.  They go together.

Earl Nightingale

      
Opportunities do not come with their values stamped upon them. . . . To face e very opportunity of life thoughtfully, and ask its meaning bravely and earnestly, is the only way to meet supreme opportunities when they come, whether open-faced or disguised.

Maltbie D. Babcock
  
The secret of success in life is for a person to be ready for his or her opportunity when it comes.

Benjamin Disraeli
   

We all want to feel secure about our lives, our finances, and our future.  Opportunities are everywhere and, contrary to public opinion, they knock more than once.  They actually knock so hard, they can knock you over.  But all too often, you aren't paying attention when they arrive, or you're intimidated and too afraid to embrace them.  You must remember that success is not a random event.  Rather, it arises as a direct result of circumstances meeting attitude and preparation.  Once you believe in yourself and have a positive plan of action, you can tap into a limitless potential of opportunity and success.

Lucinda Bassett

  

It is less important to redistribute wealth
than it is to redistribute opportunity.

Arthur Vandenberg
   

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A door that seems to stand open must be a person's size,
or it is not the door that Providence means for him or her.

Henry Ward Beecher
  

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or
to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful;
but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very
atmosphere and medium through which we look.  To
affect the quality of the day--that is the highest of arts.

Henry David Thoreau

  

We are told that talent creates it own opportunities.
But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates
not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.

Eric Hoffer
  
Nothing is so irretrievably missed as a daily opportunity.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
   

Opportunities are seldom labeled.

John A. Shedd
  

No great person ever complains of want of opportunity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

   
Opportunities are often things you haven't noticed the first time around.

Catherine Deneuve
  

The opportunities for enjoyment in your life are limitless.
If you feel you are not experiencing enough joy,
you have only yourself to blame.

David E. Bresler
  
When one door closes, another opens.  But we often look
so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that
we do not see the one which has opened for us.

Helen Keller
  

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity;
they seem more afraid of life than of death.

James F. Byrnes
  

Our opportunities to do good are our talents.

Cotton Mather
  

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Opportunity can benefit no people who have not fitted themselves
to seize it and use it.  Opportunity woos the worthy,
shuns the unworthy.  Prepare yourself to grasp opportunity,
and opportunity is likely to come your way.  It is not so fickle,
capricious and unreasoning as some complain.

B.C. Forbes

opportunity

It is often hard to distinguish between
the hard knocks in life and those of opportunity.

Frederick Phillips
  

Opportunities multiply as they are seized; they die when
neglected.  Life is a long line of opportunities.

John Wicker
  

 
Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important
thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

Benjamin Disraeli
 

Go around asking a lot of damn fool questions and taking chances.
Only through curiosity can we discover opportunities,
and only by gambling can we take advantage of them.

Clarence Birdseye
 

We are continually faced by great opportunities
brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.

unattributed
   
There are such wonderful possibilities in the life of each man and woman!
No human being is unimportant.  My inspiration comes in opening
opportunities that all alike may be free to live life to the fullest.

Samuel Gompers
   

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.

Henry J. Kaiser

 

Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them.

Hugh Miller
 

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There is a legend of an artist who long sought for a piece of sandalwood,
out of which to carve a Madonna.  He was about to give up in despair,
leaving the vision of his life unrealized, when in a dream he was bidden to
carve his Madonna from a block of oak wood which was destined for the
fire.  He obeyed and produced a masterpiece from a log of common firewood.
Many of us lose great opportunities in life by waiting to find sandalwood
for our carvings, when they really lie hidden in the common logs that we burn.

Orison Swett Marden
 

It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has
oneself prevented from becoming realities.  A possibility is a hint from
God.  One must follow it.

 Soren Kierkegaard

  
Opportunity is rare, and wise people will never let it go by them.

Bayard Taylor
  

A young man eagerly described what he dreamed of doing for the poor.
Said the Master, "When do you propose to make your dream come true?"
"As soon as the opportunity arrives."
"Opportunity never arrives," said the Master.  "It's here."

Anthony De Mello
More One-Minute Nonsense

  

 

Now that I know how many opportunities I've let go by, it's up
to me to teach myself how to recognize them and take
advantage of them.  And the burden isn't completely
on me--there are plenty of books and tape programs out
there that can help us to learn to do these things.  This is
material that should be taught in schools, but it isn't, so
we have to find other teachers outside of the classroom
who have focused on this sort of thing
as their own area of expertise.

tom walsh
   
Articles and book excerpts on opportunity:

It Is up to You      Jim Rohn
   
As adults, we tend to overthink and overanalyze.  We also forget to pay
attention.  Before we know it, an opportunity is gone.  A friend gets tired
of waiting for you to respond to an invitation.  Your child's impromptu,
after-dinner performance can't compete with your need to clean up the
kitchen.  In the business world, opportunities come and go in a
heartbeat. . . . Certainly, careful examination is essential in many situations.
But it's not always possible to know what's around the next corner.

Leslie Levine
   

Opportunity beckons more surely when misfortune comes upon a person
than it ever does when that person is riding the crest of a wave
of success.  It sharpens a person's wits, if that person will let it,
enabling him or her to see more clearly and evaluate situations
with a more knowledgeable judgment.

Epictetus
   

What is opportunity to a person who can't use it?  An unfecundated
egg, which the waves of time wash away into non-entity.

George Eliot

   

opportunity

I have been given eyes to see and a mind to think and now I know a great
secret of life for I perceive, at last, that all my problems, discouragements,
and heartaches are, in truth, great opportunities in disguise.  I will no longer
be fooled by the garments they wear for mine eyes are open.  I will look
beyond the cloth and I will not be deceived.

Og Mandino
    

We must use time creatively. . . and forever realize
that the time is always ripe to do right.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

   

Somebody said you have to love what you do, but that's not necessarily true.
What is true is that you have to love the opportunity.  The opportunity to build
life, future, health, success and fortune.  Knocking on someone's door or
making that extra call may not be something you love to do, but you love
the opportunity of what might be behind that door or call.

Jim Rohn

   

        
    

Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.